Image is from this CNN article.
The DPRK's history has been a rollercoaster, with admirable highs and heartbreaking lows, most notably the Korean War and the fall of the USSR. Its steadfast commitment to Juche, a variant of Marxism-Leninism that focuses on self-sufficiency, has both made the DPRK a target for imperialist genocidal powers, and allowed them to survive these attacks.
Lately, we seem to be seeing a transition from surviving to thriving. China and the DPRK have always had a much more complicated history than Western education and media allows its population to know, with periods of quite strong disagreement - it's not the case that China is somehow the DPRK's master. Russia is the DPRK's other neighour that isn't US-occupied, and while they obviously differ substantially in ideology since the USSR fell, the tsunami of sanctions on Russia has changed things. The stick has been removed from the equation, with Russia facing no possible punishment from the West because they were unable to enact sanctions effectively and used all their ammunition in the first few barrages rather than turning the screws over time (I don't care if we're on the 14th sanctions package, it's all been meaningless for Russia since the end of 2022).
The carrot is also more visible, with an alliance making a lot of sense for both. Once again, Western education and media would have you believe a Parenti-esque reality in which Korea is a massive and unpredictable danger to the world, but is simultaneously so poor and destitute that their artillery pieces are made of wood and their missiles out of paper-mache. The truth is that Korea has innovated greatly in missile technology, with some of their weapons matching or even exceeding those of the Russians, hence the Russians' use of them in Ukraine. Russia also finds it advantageous to invest in Korea to strengthen the anti-hegemonic alliance's presence in the Pacific, countering the US-occupied lower half of the peninsula who has naturally sided with Ukraine. Additionally, Russia is investing deeply in the Arctic sea route. This will open up as climate change continues; is naturally quite defensible for Russia so long as Korea is there to provide further defense at its eastern edge; and is both a faster and safer route for Russia to access China - especially in a world where straits can be blockaded by even impoverished yet determined countries like Yemen. The situation in the Red Sea benefits Russia and China now, but in the coming years, the US may apply the same lesson for their own benefit elsewhere.
It is perhaps this new sense of self-confidence that has let Korea give up on reunification with its lower half via peaceful measures. A new Korean War would be devastating for both sides even if it remained non-nuclear, but with a rising DPRK and with the South falling yet further into hypercapitalist exploitation and misery, and a US that remains non-committal to its "allies" when times get difficult (as in Ukraine and Europe), a reality where Korea may finally hold the upper hand and have the ability to liberate its south may be approaching in the years and decades to come.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Country of the Week is *the DPRK! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
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The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Richard Medhurst is a cooler version of Hasan with a better understanding of geopolitics. He gives no fucks about optics for liberals and NATO leftists.
I do wish Hasan went more in depth with MENA coverage because him being Turkish and familiar with their politics adds a unique perspective that you don’t get often in the west. I guess he’s sort of doing that now with the Israel-Palestine war coverage.
I don't understand how anyone watches Hasan, I feel like 99% of his streams are just yelling at chatters obviously trolling him and crying that people called him rich
Hasan has basically become a streaming hermit, but he still has some good streams. I don't watch his regular daily stuff for a lot of the reasons you mention, plus I basically see most of what he covers anyways on my own between here, reddit, and Twitter. He definitely has let chat take over the stream and he can't help himself for whatever reason.
He still does good streams though, especially when he's got his main friend group around or good guests. The streams he did in Austin a couple months ago were really good. Hasan brushing a cow at Alveus Sanctuary is the best clip he's put out in a while. He had Will, Felix, and Chris from Chapo on recently and it was really good.
Hasan gets a ridiculous amount of hate and it's his job to engage with chat. I don't think most of us can imagine the kind of toll it takes on you to have to read so many people's hate messages on a daily basis.
I remember when he was on the Deprogram and like 80% of it was him defending himself against things haters accuse him of. None of the podcast boys said anything, he just started talking about it. Imo it's gotten noticeably worse over the last 2 years.
I'm not saying Hasan shouldn't engage with chat, I'm saying he needs to stop engaging directly with the haters so much. I understand that Hasan gets a ridiculous amount of hate. But when he singles the haters out and yells at them for 5 minutes and shows their usernames on screen, he is giving them what they want, which just encourages them. He makes his own situation worse and he basically seems like he has locked himself in his room because he's addicted to being mad at times. I wish he would just lean into it instead and make a sparkling wine brand or something.
Yeah of course, it's completely irrational to give them so much attention. But I don't know to what extent it's humanly possible to react rationally to hate like that. I think it wears you down over time.
I only listen to the videos on his YouTube channel. Generally decent politics makes it easier to bear and it's entertaining enough. There's also less chat bs popping up unless it's funny.
Actually watching streams live has always been kinda boring to me. It's like watching something live that hasn't started yet and you don't know when something actually interesting or important will happen.
That’s what I do. The VODs cut out a lot of the excess moments he spends yelling at people on his chat.
its fun to watch the news with my para-social communist friend who doesn't know i exist. plus him yelling at chatters is when he's at his best, even when they are obvious trolls the dude treats them like an exasperated teacher and explains exactly why they are wrong, i appreciate it as someone autistic enough to require more than the normal amount of explicit-ness. hasan is kinda like if noam chomsky was capable of showing feelings of any kind and had more correct opinions about politics.
noam chomsky has a better take on the Ukraine war than Hasan
he is also frustratingly close but so far. Like he gets some things western radlibs fail to get, but then he hedges with them and caves to their optics and framing
I watch VODs sometimes. I can scroll through boring bits, and see the interesting stuff.
you aren't the target demographic of internet addicted zoomer clicking on the stream with the hottest person talking
Hasan has one job, introduce young white dum dums to socialist and leftist ideas, and he does it competently
Also Hasan has a far bigger audience than Medhurst, it's like looking at a pipeline pumping out nice clean seltzer water and complaining it's not dispensing delicious red wine, meanwhile Medhurst is just a spigot stuck in a random tree somewhere occasionally dribbling out nectar
The left needs to get used to having popular figures and all the annoyances that comes with
I just find medhurst to be more of my cup of tea. Mainly because he reminds me of a lot of Latin American leftists who are just as fiery. Hasan plays his role well and does a good job as a pipeline.
Richard Medhurst is more effective at convincing normies too who aren't internet addicted zoomers obsessed with parasocial politics. My boring lib roommates were all radicalized by him while I was watching him on the TV in the living room. I don't think they would have cared at all about internet drama between Destiny and whoeverthefuck. Richard stays focused on what's important, Hasan gets lost in the internet spectacle weeds.
Lol does he actually know anything? Because it just seems that he has left leaning beliefs but just googles everything and learns it live then do commentary on it. Nothing wrong with not knowing something, but giving hot takes as you learn it alongside your audience is a
move
That's like, not what he does though? Like he's been broadcasting a ton of pro-palestine coverage for months now, and it's certainly not something he just read on wikipedia. He knows quite a bit. Like, I don't agree with all of his takes, but like this just blatantly false.
He seems to based on an interview I saw with him and Scott Ritter. At least with Turkish politics he seems fairly informed and that’s something that really doesn’t get enough attention for a country as important as it is in the MENA region.
Hasan doesn't really do "effort" streams. He doesn't have on expert guests for the most part. He doesn't do research on subjects beforehand. He just kind of vibes and learns on the fly, which is pretty cringe to watch
I agree he's better, but I don't see how he's like Hasan. Richard isn't parasocial, he just rants and lays down truth. Hasan is a brand in and of himself, his entire stream is the Hasan Experience. It's a cult of personality basically.
I don't think Medhurst runs interference for, and tells you to vote for, Genocide Joe, so much better than Hasan.
Has Hasan said this since Oct 7?
I never watched a minute of his stream before Oct 7. I’ve watched it some since and tbh I haven’t seen him have a really bad opinion on anything yet.
He doesn't try to vote-shame so much, but yes. Here he is from about a week ago:
All you have to do is mention Trump for Hasan to start defending Biden and blaming every bad thing Biden has ever done on Trump. And you should hear him talk glowingly about Biden's domestic policies regarding the environment, labor, etc. He absolutely runs interference for Biden and for the Democrats. He may not do vote-shaming in the same way as most liberals do, but he's 100% of the opinion that Democrats are far better than Republicans, that they should be supported, and that the main problem is that they just don't market themselves effectively enough by highlighting what he views as very significant differences between them. How he can express that and still say in the next or previous breath that he thinks it's a one-party system...your guess is as good as mine, but he does. Streamers. shrug
And while he doesn't really try to shame people into voting for Democrats (and Biden specifically), he does advocate for it. Go ahead and get on his stream and ask him how he thinks you (or people generally) should vote in November.
One party as in same economic interests, class interests even, not same (democratic) principles or values. The democrats did successfully destroy any real leftist alternative and if you're naive you look at the differences between voters and politicians on both sides you start to actualy believe there is a real difference between them.
Its why he is mad the dems are moving to the right. But for socialists we know the Dems were never actualy leftists at all, it was always inevitable that late-stage capitalism becomes more and more fascist, it is dropping the mask, not any sort of significant change in core values.
The problem is he is inconsistent, here the reaction to the Michigan vote this is a good segment(28:45-38:00) he is almost giving the entire standard Hexbear line including dunking on someone suggesting voting uncommited is voting for Trump.
You're right he is still on harm reduction theory, he is still on Trump will be worse line etc. But you can also tell very obviously its unconfortable, the rethorical questions like this one below only have one answer, you have to abandon "democracy" as a principle. This shit, even though it sounds cringe it is almost arguing with fundamentalist Christians, how else to explain that your entire set of beliefs is founded on a lie and based on a fundamental misunderstanding of reality?
But Hasan's value is at least this time around at least he is cynical enough that he is also telling people the true path of the Democratic party, whether he likes it or not I believe he is doing more to encourage apathy in the end because the Dems will not appreciate even this form of criticism(which he rages against in that segment).
Even though he can reconcile/cope with it, his audience may not. Its realy the same of what happened with the Bernie base too, if Trump wins, Hasan will be criticized for being against Biden lol even though he was warning about Dems losing, warning against shaming etc.
His true enemies are the Twitch/Reddit politics/streamers/gamers base that knows and cares about him, and against them he will be wrong no matter how much he reconciles and copes with Biden. Even this form of criticism is unacceptable and as I said this will keep pushing his audience away from libs because libs are pushing him away even harder.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
I can sort of make an argument for harm reduction and that the uniparty is real. The overall class interests of both parties are the same since they're both owned by Wall Street but there are particulars for how they're different. This is because they are different factions within the uniparty that have different voting bases. This results in voting for democrats essentially being voting for the monstrous face of capital to wear a nicer mask and to be less homophobic. There is a difference between how they function as well. Basically the ratchet effect also means that if you don't want things to get worse at a faster rate you have to vote for the democrats.
This is all stuff at the federal level though. At the state level republicans just do whatever they want to viciously seize power and the democrats act like boring middle managers.
Ultimately, Capital always wins but if someone wants to take the time to vote for a marginally slower decline into American fascism I won't argue against them.
He both sides and condemns the October 7th attack, he both sides the Russo-Ukrainian War and purposefully remains quite ignorant in it. I find him very annoying because he only gets about halfway to good positions then stops short
I haven't seen him say anything like that lately but idk